John Kerry Eyes The White House
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said Sunday he is taking a first step toward running for president in 2004, forming a committee to explore a White House bid.
An official announcement of his candidacy is "down the road," some months away, Kerry said. But, he said, "I've made a decision to file a committee, I'm going to begin this week to file a committee" to test the waters.
"When you really get into the formal stage, which I am now entering, you find out who's prepared to be there, who can raise the money," Kerry said during a broadcast interview. "It becomes real."
Exploratory committees are established by budding candidates mainly to raise money, finance travels around the country and help gauge voter support.
Democrats are expected to have a crowded field of candidates seeking the party's nomination, although only Vermont Gov. Howard Dean already is running.
Al Gore, the 2000 nominee, and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards expect to disclose their plans after the Christmas holidays. Outgoing House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri is expected to begin telling colleagues whether he plans to run. Also considering the race is Gore's running mate from two years ago, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut.
"There are other good people who are standing up. There are others who will contest. That's part of the process," Kerry said. "I welcome that part of the process. I welcome a contest of ideas."
Kerry, a 58-year-old Vietnam veteran and former prosecutor, has said for the past year that he was seriously thinking about a run in 2004.
A recent Los Angeles Times poll of Democratic National Committee members showed only one-third of them think Gore should run again. When people were asked their favorites among potential Democratic candidates, Gore and Kerry were at the top of their lists.
Others polls suggest Gore has an advantage among Democratic hopefuls should he decide to run, but public sentiment about the former vice president is mixed.
Kerry entered the Navy after graduation from Yale. He served on a gunboat in Vietnam's Mekong Delta and received numerous decorations for his combat experience, including a Silver Star and three Purple Heart awards. When he returned home he became a spokesman for Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
"I love this country. I have a great sense of what this country can be and what it is," Kerry said.
He worked as a lawyer and prosecutor in Massachusetts, before being elected lieutenant governor.
He was elected to the Senate two years later in 1984. As Massachusetts' junior senator, Kerry has labored for more than 15 years in the shadow of Sen. Edward Kennedy.
Kerry has been drawing differences with President Bush in the areas of energy and foreign policy in appearances around the country. He plans to lay out his economic plan in a policy speech Tuesday in Cleveland, including focusing tax cuts more on the middle class.
Kerry said "there is a better choice for the nation" on issues such as the economy, the needs of middle-class Americans, the environment and the U.S. role in the world."
Kerry has more than $3 million in his Senate election committee that can be rolled into a presidential effort, associates said.
In the past, Kerry and his wife, Heinz foods heir Teresa Heinz, have decided against using their own money, which totals in the hundreds of millions of dollars, for campaigns. He has said he would rather run on a broad base of individual supporters. Kerry does not take money from political action committees representing corporations, labor unions and interest groups.
Democrats say Kerry has an impressive background and grasp of the issues, but the biggest challenge for him will be to connect with voters around the country. They say Kerry does not have the natural warmth with voters of a politician such as Edwards or Bill Clinton.
He is a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and helped lead the investigation into the Iran-Contra affair. Kerry helped expose fraud and abuse at the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, which was closed in 1991 after links to secret weapons deals, terrorist financing and drug-money laundering were revealed. Investigators have since learned that Osama bin Laden was among those with accounts in the bank.
On the domestic front, Kerry broke with many in his party in 1985 and supported the Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction measure.
He has been outspoken on environmental issues, blocking a 1995 Republican effort to loosen clean air and water regulations and leading last year's floor effort to oppose drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.